We had an awesome start to the year handing out 600 Impact bags with food, laundry soap, water, and Impact group meeting times. The thing that was most interesting was those that seemed surprised that a “Christian” group was handing out bags of stuff with no expectation of a sign up list or any strings attached. We simply wanted to welcome students back to Indiana University of South Bend and let them know that someone cares. That’s it, Jesus loves them and so do we. Do we want them to come to our bible studies? Sure! But the main goal was for them to feel loved and wanted. The more they see the love of Jesus, hopefully the more open they will be to getting involved with a campus ministry group!

Community is a big key in campus ministry. One of the biggest issues that college students face is the need to find a place to belong. It may be a club, sports team, or a particular group of new friends and at a secular college it can mean doing things they wouldn’t normally do. Many students are willing to sacrifice the quality of their community in order to fit in and as a campus ministry, we want to be that place. Our goal with the bag hand out was simple: